Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 40
3rd International Conference on Education, Language, Art and Inter-cultural Communication (ICELAIC 2016)
Pronouns Study in China
Taking a Research on Pronouns in Excavated Materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty as an Example
Yanmei Zhang
Han Ding
College of Liberal Arts
South China Normal University
Guangzhou, China
School of Foreign Language
Guilin University of Electronic Technology
Guilin, China
School of Foreign Language
Guilin University of Electronic Technology
Guilin, China
Abstract—Nowadays, with large number of underground
materials discovered, the grammatical study in excavated
materials has attracted more attention of scholars. This article,
based on the differences of time periods and literatures,
reviews the studies in China according to pronouns in
excavated materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty from four aspects:
pronouns study of oracle of Yin Ruins, pronouns study of
inscriptions on bronzes of Zhou Dynasty, pronouns study of
excavated materials of the Warring States and Qin Dynasty as
well as comprehensive pronouns study of different time periods
and literatures mentioned above. On this foundation, the
article points out limitations of current study. Meanwhile, the
article especially indicates that it will be of great theoretical
significance to establish a more real origin and development of
Chinese pronouns that accord with history if we thoroughly
utilize excavated materials and use them to see Chinese
pronouns in the diachronic development of different time
periods of whole Pre-Qin Dynasty.
House, 2006) (Note: Mr. Leshi He mentioned in the
explanatory note that strictly speaking, not exactly all the
words joining in the dictionary are function words, like
pronouns and indefinite numerals so as to provide much
convenience to readers reading ancient books), Word Class
Study of Spring-Autumn of Lü written by Guoguang Yin
(published by The Commercial Press, 2008), Ancient
Chinese Grammar written by Yujin Zhang (published by
Guangdong Higher Education Press, 2010) and The First
personal Pronoun Study of Pre-Qin Chinese written by Hong
Zhu (doctoral dissertation of Nankai University, 2010).
Keywords—pronouns study; oracle of Yin Ruins; inscriptions
on bronzes of Zhou Dynasty; excavated materials of the Warring
States and Qin Dynasty
I.
INTRODUCTION
Pronouns study is an important component in grammar
research. Ma Shi Wen Ton is the first systematic work about
Chinese grammar in China. Before the book was born, there
were ancient Chinese scholars doing research on Chinese
pronouns. After Ma Shi Wen Ton was written, plenty of
scholars have did research on Chinese pronouns. Taking the
study of ancient Chinese pronouns as an example, papers and
monographs emerge in large numbers.
For example, there are works relating to pronouns study
of ancient Chinese, like Ancient Chinese Grammar: Address
Pronouns written by Fagao Zhou (published by Institute of
History and Philology of Academia Sinica in Taiwan, 1959),
Ancient Chinese Outline written by Bingjun Zhou (published
by Hunan Education Press, 1981), Ancient Chinese
Grammar written by Zuofeng Li (published by The
Commercial Press, 2004), Word Class Study of Yan Zi Chun
Qiu written by Zhenwu Yao (published by Henan University
Press, 2005), Function Word Dictionary of Ancient Chinese
written by Leshi He (published by Language Publishing
Another example, there are works relating to developing
pronouns study of ancient Chinese, like History of the
Chinese Language written by Li Wang (published by
Chinese Publishing House, 1980), Summary of Chinese
Grammar History written by Yunzhong Pan (published by
Zhongzhou Calligraphy Association, 1982), Outline of
Chinese Grammar History written by Cunzhi Shi (published
by East China Normal University Press, 1986), Concise
History of Chinese Language (Volume II) written by Xi
Xiang (published by Higher Education Press, 1993), Ancient
Chinese Grammar and Its Development written by Bojun
Yang and Leshi He (published by Language Publishing
House, 2001) and the Study of the Chinese Historical
Grammar written by Bo Hong (published by The
Commercial Press, 2010).
With regard to the study of ancient Chinese pronouns,
papers and works using historical documents as corpora have
always been a lot. However, papers and works using
excavated materials as corpora have been relatively less.
Some corpora used in the works mentioned above slightly
utilize excavated materials. But for researchers, since
materials were limited at that time and the need to study
pronouns of handed-down documents as well as the
universal purpose of writing, corpora use handed-down
documents more often.
China, a country with an ancient civilization, abounds in
ancient literature. Ancient literatures that we see nowadays
belong to handed-down documents, which mostly spread
after a long time before the discovery of underground
documental materials. For instance, Zuozhuan, Guoyu,
Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 40
Stratagems of the Warring States, The Analects of Confucius,
Guan Zi, The Words of Mencius, Mo Zi, Lao Zi, Chuang-tzu,
Xun Zi, Spring-Autumn of Lü, Han Feizi, The Songs of Chu,
Yan Zi Chun Qiu are handed-down documents that spread
from ancient Eastern Zhou Dynasty of the Warring States
more than two thousand years ago (Note: Eastern Zhou
Dynasty of ancient China was divided into Spring and
Autumn and Warring States Period). However, works like
The Book of Changes and The Book of Songs handed down
from earlier Spring and Autumn Period of Western Zhou and
Eastern Zhou.
Once upon a century, plenty of ancient documental
materials discovered from subsurface constantly, such as
oracles, bronze inscriptions, silk bamboo slips and Dunhuang
manuscripts. These documental materials underneath from
underground are called excavated documents. Excavated
document is opposite to handed-down document. Excavated
document, the same as „meantime information‟, has a strong
authenticity of document because it has been hidden
underground without spreading over a long period. Thus, it
veritably keeps its appearance at that time. Hence, in the case
of grammar study of ancient Chinese, this kind of corpus has
greater scientific value than handed-down document that
hard to keep its original language and may not have clear era
and region.
Since the beginning of this century in China, the largest
number of massive precious excavated documents belongs to
excavated materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty. Excavated materials
of Pre-Qin Dynasty date back to oracle of Yin Ruins, then
inscriptions on bronzes of Shang Dynasty, Western Zhou and
Spring and Autumn of Eastern Zhou. After that, it had
developed from enormous bamboo silks, inscriptions on
bronzes and jade text of the Warring States of Eastern Zhou
and Qin Dynasty.
II.
PREVIOUS STUDIES ON P RONOUNS IN EXCAVATED
MATERIALS OF P RE-Q IN D YNASTY
We highlight research achievements which are related to
pronouns based on excavated materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty
in recent China and achieved by predecessors. According to
diverse time periods and literatures, we will review the
research from the following four aspects:
A. Works Referring to Pronouns Study of Oracle of Yin
Ruins
Research achievements in this respect mainly are The
Grammar Study of The Oracle-bone Inscriptions of Yin
Ruins by Xiechu Guan (Language Institute of Chinese
Academy of Sciences, 1953), Oracle Inscriptions of Yin
Ruins by Mengjia Chen (Science Press, 1956), The
Exploration of Function Words of Oracle by Cheng Zhao
(Chinese Ancient Scripts Research Association, 1984),
Oracle Syntax by Yujin Zhang (Xuelin Press, 2001)
Research on Classic Words of Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of
Yin Ruins by Fengbin Yang (Huacheng Press, 2003) and
Inscriptions Grammar of Yin Ruins by Xi Li (Shanxi Normal
University Press,2004).
B. Works Referring to Pronouns Study of Inscriptions on
Bronzes of Zhou Dynasty
In fact, Zhou Dynasty includes Western Zhou and
Eastern Zhou, which also contains Spring and Autumn and
the Warring States. For the sake of telling, we introduce the
pronouns study of inscriptions on bronzes of Zhou Dynasty
here. Achievements in this area are Grammar Study on
Inscriptions on Bronzes of Western Zhou by Xiechu Guan
(The Commercial Press, 1981), Grammar Study on Chinese
Language of Western Zhou by Yujin Zhang (The
Commercial Press, 2004), Chinese Pronouns Study on
Western Zhou by Yujin Zhang (Chinese Publishing House,
2006).
In addition, there are doctoral dissertations do research
on function words like Study on Function Words on
Inscriptions on Bronzes of Western Zhou by Huarong Liang
(doctoral dissertation of Sichuan University, 2005) and Study
on Classic Words on Inscriptions on Bronzes of Zhou
Dynasty (Function Words Part) by Zhenyu Wu (doctoral
dissertation of Jilin University, 2006). However, since
Chinese traditional linguistics, especially some influential
works of function words studies in classical Chinese puts
pronouns on function words, in order to take care of tradition,
two authors place pronouns in function words to inspect and
study. Eventually, there are also master theses referring to
pronouns study of inscriptions on bronzes of Zhou Dynasty,
including Chinese Characters study on inscriptions on
bronzes of the Warring States by Cuicui Liu (master thesis of
East China Normal University, 2010).
C. Works Referring to Pronouns Study of Excavated
Materials of the Warring States and Qin Dynasty
Excavated materials of the Warring States and Qin
Dynasty can be divided into bamboo slips used in the Qin
Dynasty, bamboo slips and silks used in the Chu Dynasty,
bronze script of the Warring States and several excavated
materials of the Warring States (Note: bronze script of the
Warring States has been introduced in the second type of
inscriptions on bronzes of Zhou Dynasty). Research
achievements refer to pronouns in this term quite a few, like
The Grammar Study of Shuihudi Qin Tomb Bamboo Slips by
Desheng Wei (Capital Normal University Press, 2000),
Grammar Research on Excavated Materials of the Warring
States by Shoujin Zhou (Beijing University Press, 2005), The
Vocabulary Study of Baoshan Chu Slips by Ying Wang
(Xiamen University Press, 2008), Grammar Study of
Bamboo Slips in the Chu Dynasty of the Warring States by
Mingxiao Li (Wuhan University Press, 2010) and A
Research on Function words in Excavated Materials of the
Warring States by Yujin Zhang (People's Publishing House,
2011). Among these works, although the research object is
function word in Yujin Zhang A Research on Function
words in Excavated Materials of the Warring States
(People's Publishing House, 2011), some multi-category
words mentioned have both usages of function words and
pronouns such as ‘此’, ‘斯’, ‘然’, ‘若’and so on.
The articles also discuss that structural particles ‘之’ and
„其‟ are rooted in pronouns and character ‘焉 (安)’ is a
special demonstrative pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun and
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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 40
modal particle or preposition as well as pronoun. Moreover,
the essay shows ideas on whether characters ‘者’ and
‘所’ are pronouns or auxiliary words.
Related research achievements in this research field made
by predecessors have laid a perfect foundation. However, we
should also see that there are limitations on previous studies.
Besides, there are also theses and dissertations relating to
pronouns study in excavated materials of the Warring States
and Qin Dynasty, such as Pronoun Research on Bamboo
Slips Used in the Qin Dynasty written by Wei Hu (master
thesis of South China Normal University, 2005), Language
Study of Baoshan Chu Slips by Bo Liu (master thesis of
Beijing Normal University, 2005), Grammar Study of
Guodian Chu Slips by Yuemin Deng (doctoral dissertation of
Sichuan University, 2006), Vocabulary Study of Shuihudi
Qin Tomb Bamboo Slips by Hong Yang (master thesis of
East China Normal University, 2008), Grammar Study of
Longgang Qin Bamboo Slips by Changhua Xiong (master
thesis of Southwestern University, 2010), Vocabulary
Systematic Study of Fangmatan by Huiye Bao (master thesis
of East China Normal University, 2013) and so on.
Initially, even though works studying pronouns of
excavated materials of the Warring States and Qin Dynasty
as well as theses and dissertations account for most of the
percentage, excavated materials of the Warring States and
Qin Dynasty are much more abundant than materials in other
time periods actually. Besides, owing to in the domestic
China situation, excavated materials corpora of the Warring
States already published are inscriptions on bronzes of the
Warring States, scripts from bamboo slips of the Warring
States (like Wulipai bamboo slips of Chu, Angtian Lake
bamboo slips of Chu, Yang Jia Wan bamboo slips of Chu,
Xinyang bamboo slips of Chu, Wang Mountain bamboo
slips of Chu, Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng bamboo slips, Jiu
Dian bamboo slips of Chu, Bao Mountain bamboo slips of
Chu, Guo Dian bamboo slips of Chu, Shanghai Museum
bamboo slips of Chu, Xincai bamboo slips of Chu, bamboo
slips in Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tian Xing Guan
bamboo slips of Qin, tsinghua bamboo slips,Shuihudi
bamboo slips of Qin, Shuihudi bamboo tablets of Qin,
Qingchuan bamboo tablets of Qin, Fangma Beach bamboo
slips of Qin, Yue Shan bamboo tablets of Qin, Longgang
bamboo slips of Qin, Choujiatai bamboo slips of Qin, Liye
bamboo slips of Qin and Yuelu Academy bamboo slips of
Qin), books copied on silk of the Warring States (like book
copied on silk of the Warring States in Changsha bullet
Library) and jade text of the Warring States (including Yin
jade marginal inscription of Qin, Xing Qi jade inscription,
jade Huang admonitions carved on a stone, Shou Qiu
lithoglyph, ten Qin kingdom inscribed steles and the
engravings on Mount Yi). It can be seen that previous
relevant researches on pronouns in excavated materials of the
Warring States and Qin Dynasty were too far to broaden
their reaches these whole precious corpora. Moreover, plenty
of summaries and further researches of pronouns system in
literature books of the valuable corpora still remain virtually
deserted.
D. Works Referring to Pronouns Study of Comprehensive
Pronouns Study of Different Time Periods and
Literatures Mentioned Above
Temporarily, we could only seek out one master thesis on
works referring to pronouns study of comprehensive
pronouns study of different time periods and literatures
mentioned above, and that is The first Personal Pronoun of
Excavated Materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty written by Jingwen
Liu (master thesis of South China Normal University, 2003).
Moreover, the introduction part of this article also
mentioned that some works relating to pronouns study of
ancient Chinese and developing pronouns study of ancient
Chinese slightly utilize pronouns study of different time
periods and literatures. However, it usually uses a small
amount of excavated materials. However, due to the need of
researchers limited materials, researches to pronouns of
handed-down documents and universal purpose of writing,
more handed-down documents are used in corpora instead of
completely making use of excavated materials. For instance,
it is Yunzhong Pan Summary of Chinese Grammar History
(published by Zhongzhou Calligraphy Association, 1982)
mentioned in the introduction part that talks about the
development of personal pronoun, using examples of oracle
in Shang Dynasty and inscriptions on bronzes of Zhou
Dynasty and yet literatures in the Warring States are all
handed-down documents.
III. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we can see that with large number
underground materials discovered, researches on pronouns in
excavated materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty have drawn much
attention from scholars. Among the materials, works
studying pronouns of excavated materials of the Warring
States and Qin Dynasty as well as theses and dissertations
account for most, while comprehensive pronouns study of
different time periods and literatures mentioned above and
fully used excavated materials are extremely rare.
Second, it is research achievements which are related to
pronouns based on excavated materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty
in recent China and achieved by predecessors mentioned
above that actually quite a few achievements do not
exhaustively utilize relevant excavated materials owing to
the limited materials at that time. For example, Grammar
Study of Bamboo Slips in the Chu Dynasty of the Warring
States by Mingxiao Li (Wuhan University Press, 2010)
mentioned above takes materials of Shanghai Museum
Bamboo Slips of Chu in the Warring States Period. However,
because the limited materials that the author could only saw
Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips of Chu (Book 1-Book 7),
he did not take Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips of Chu
(Book 8 and Book 9) which are mature in explanations
nowadays into account. We cannot blame the predecessors
with doubt and because of the time, some has not been
announced and some has been published yet hard to
recognize. Thus, there is necessarily a lag issue of used study
materials.
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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 40
Third, last but not least, based on the current situation
which exhausted systematical research on pronouns in
literature books of various periods of excavated materials of
Pre-Qin Dynasty, it lacks achievements of periodical
descriptions of pronouns of various periods of excavated
materials systematically by using a unified theoretical
framework. Besides, it also lacks diachronic comparison and
evolution research that rest this systematical periodical
description. (Note: periodical description, namely
„synchronic description‟, is opposite to the concept of
„diachronic comparison‟. Periodical description of pronouns
is comprehensively and systematically demonstrates a real
appearance of pronouns system of an age. Taking Chinese in
Pre-Qin Period as an example, there could have periodical
description of pronouns in Shang Dynasty, periodical
description of pronouns in Western Zhou, periodical
description of pronouns in Spring and Autumn Period and
periodical description of pronouns in the Warring States.) As
has been said above, works referring to pronouns study of
comprehensive pronouns study of different time periods and
literatures mentioned above are so rare that one master thesis
could be found currently. Hence, it is of great theoretical
significance to establish a more real origin and development
of Chinese pronouns that accord with history and more
reliable Chinese history study if we focus on the long process
of Chinese historical development and thoroughly utilize
excavated materials. Moreover, based on the current
situation which exhausted systematical research and
systematical periodical description on pronouns in literature
books of various periods of excavated materials of Pre-Qin
Dynasty, we ought to make longitudinal diachronic
comparison with the Shang oracle, Zhou inscriptions on
bronzes, excavated materials of the Warring States and Qin
Dynasty and any other period and see Chinese pronouns in
the diachronic development of different time periods of
whole Pre-Qin Dynasty.
[5]
[6]
Yujin Zhang. Study of Developing Function Words in Excavated
Materials of Pre-Qin Dynasty [M]. Guangzhou: Jinan University
Press, 2016.
Yanmei Zhang. et al. 2016. “The Retrospect and the Prospect of a
Research on Pronouns in Excavated Materials of the Warring States ”
2016 International Conference on Contemporary Education，Social
Sciences and Humanities（ICCESSH 2016）, St.Petersburg, Russia,
Sept.27-28, 2016. Paris, France: Atlantis Press, Electronic product—
447-450 pp.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The article got advice from Mr. Yujin Zhang, the
professor and doctoral supervisor of College of Liberal Arts,
South China Normal University. It was also supported by the
„cultivation project of scientific research‟ of School of
Foreign Language, Guilin University of Electronic
Technology (Theory and Practice of Research Teaching
among International Chinese Education Undergraduate
Students—Taking Ancient Chinese I as an Example).
Thanks again.
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